Monday, February 16, 2015

Letter from Hermana Bentley - 2/9/15

I can't remember everything that I want to say! So this might just splurge out...

Every thursday we go on a "car fast" and so we walked everywhere that day. SUPER DUPER COLD!!!!!!! I bought a KitKat to remind myself that there were still good things in the world...and plus my companion was about to die of cold so we went into a convenience store. We taught a recent convert that day and he served us dinner. The dinner was quite interesting. My companion had a chunk of fish in there with the bones and scales still in there! And then I looked at mine. It was actually pretty cool. My chunk of fish actually still had the full tail on there! I meant to keep the skeleton of the tail (it was full and intact!!) but as we were teaching, someone cleaned it up:( I almost ate a couple of fish scales, but I felt them and pulled them out.

The story of the Ojedas continues to be inspiring! We officially invited Hno. Ojeda to come back and be active in the church. His answer was awesome! My companion says she has never had such a positive response to that question. He says that he will do whatever he can to come back. He said that he has been blessed with a good financial situation, but has neglected the things of God. So he's determined. I seriously am so proud of him! Mi companera y yo took Hna. Ojeda on a tour of the church to help her feel more comfortable with coming to church. It was kinda crazy, cuz a member totally overloaded her with all these details about everything/deeper doctrine, but she's okay! She came to church on Sunday and she really liked it! Plus Saturday night she invited us over and we were able to teach her about diezmo:) I believed she is one of those prepared ones!

The gift of tongues is growing within me as I focus on what people are saying. During lessons and conversations, I can get the gist of what we're saying and sometimes I even participate! I also can talk better. Yesterday my companion said my prayer was great, that I didn't have grammatical errors like I usually do! Step up for me:) It's kinda funny though, cuz I don't think that people really know what to say to me, so they greet my companion excitedly and then they turn to me and say, "Como esta su espanol?" or in accented English, "how is your Spanish?" At first, I was like, "poco a poco!" But it's kinda embarrassing to me now cuz I simply just say, "Esta mejor que ayer..." It's like they expect me to be picking it up pretty good by now. But I'm pretty sure that some of the members just don't know what to say to me... yesterday was a good day of communication with the people in the ward though! My companion and I taught this Sunday school class the Plan of Salvation. Mostly my companion talked and I drew on the board. She gave me a couple of opportunities to speak, and I looked like a deer in the headlights the first time, but the second time I took it and talked a little. I was a little bit scrambled, but I think I helped them a little. Oh by the way it was in English cuz the teenagers prefer that. And we were more comfortable with that. Poco a poco.

On Tuesday we had a zone meeting and I got to sing a number with another elder. We sang super awesome! And another brilliant piano player kind of elder played the guitar for us. It was a beautiful song about going and doing the Lord's work with faith:) I was a little surprised at my music ability cuz halfway in the song I went on a wrong note, but the note sounded good, and somehow I was able to sing the rest of the phrase in harmony and I got back on track for the rest of the song...scary, but thanks to Heavenly Father for helping me through that!

I love you all and hope that you have a fantastic week!

Oh! And I went to Ellis Island and that was super fun! I saw the Statue of Liberty from a distance and a whole bunch of fun historic stuff! Especially the building that everybody used to have to go through to become part of the US.